Atlanta Braves: Ender Inciarte Steals Bags and Hits Dingers

It did not take long for Atlanta Braves fans to take a liking to their new center fielder after the historic Shelby Miller trade. Ender Inciarte is becoming much more than scouts anticipated.

Base stealing does not have the significance in today’s game like it once did. Sabermetrics essentially spits on the idea of trying to steal bases. Billy Hamilton doesn’t care. Ender Inciarte is starting to care less too, it seems. The Atlanta Braves could certainly use it no matter what sabermetricians say about it.

While there is no way Inciarte is going to pull a B-Ham and take 50+ bags this year, he’s on pace for a career-best in the category. He has currently swiped ten. That’s six short of his Atlanta-best, and 11 short of his career best in 2015.

This should not come as a surprise. He’s hitting the golden years of the typical aging curve of a ballplayer. His speed is a large part of his Gold Glove defense in center field. Baseball America gave him ‘Fastest Baserunner’ in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization back in 2014.

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He stole 161 bases in 609 games in the minor leagues, averaging one every 3.78 games. He stole 46 and 43 bags in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The major leagues have slowed him up in that regard, but he did take 19 in 2014.

Inciarte stole 21 bases in 2015, his career best. He averaged one stolen base every 6.29 games. The ten he has stolen right now leaves him with an average of one bag every 5.3 games. He’s now on pace for 30.

The Atlanta Braves have had their troubles with scoring runs. Having a 30-bag player should help a bit. They’re third-worst in the league for team hits per run at 2.09 and second-worst for team hits for extra bases % at 21.1. Baseball seems to have a stat for everything, but they are both factors toward Atlanta being 22nd in the league in runs per game.

Ender Inciarte is well on his way to besting his stolen base mark and helping any way he can. Included is his power development. He has just tied career-high home run count. Inciarte hit six for the Diamondbacks in 2015. He is at six now and on pace for about 18. His speed and new-found pop should help him repeat his seven triples from 2016.

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Stealing 30 bases doesn’t have a great impact on runs scored, despite how that may sound. The Atlanta Braves could use the help anyway. General Manager John Copollela must have seen Inciarte as a .300 hitter with 15 home runs and 30 stolen bags per year with gold glove defense in center field. Looks like he was right to make the bet.